Black Inc. Book Club Notes
         TITLE: Car Crash
         AUTHOR: Lech Blaine
         ISBN: 9781863959698
         PRICE: $29.99
         SUBJECT: Memoir
          
         Book description 
         At seventeen, Lech Blaine walked away unharmed from a car crash  
         that killed three of his friends and left two in comas.
         On a May night in 2009, seven boys in Toowoomba, 
         Queensland, piled into a car. They never arrived at their 
         destination. The driver made a routine error, leading to  
         a head-on collision.
         In the aftermath, rumours about speed and drink driving         Praise for Car Crash
         erupted. There was intense scrutiny from media and 
         police. Lech used alcohol to numb his grief and social          ‘Scarifying and unforgettable, Car Crash is a story of carnage 
         media to show stoicism, while secretly spiralling towards       and life-long consequences – not just from a single, sudden 
         depression and disgrace.                                        catastrophe but from the long, slow cataclysm of masculine 
                                                                         confusion. A brave and unsettling account.’ —TIM WINTON
         This is a riveting account of family, friendship, grief and 
         love after tragedy. In a country where class and sport          ‘A poetic, unflinching meditation on the exuberance of 
         dominate, and car crashes compete with floods and               youth and the trauma of survival. It shines with a fierce 
         pandemics for headlines, our connection with others is          intelligence.’ —KRISTINA OLSSON
         what propels us on. Heartbreaking and darkly hilarious, 
         Car Crash is a story for our times.                             ‘A heart-soaring act of literary bravery where the ongoing 
                                                                         cost of experience is exposed in every note-perfect 
         About the author                                                sentence. This is a profound reflection on the deafening 
                                                                         soul noise heard by a beautiful group of young friends 
                                Lech Blaine is a writer from             fated to live the rest of their lives with the silence of the 
                                Toowoomba, now based in Sydney.          dead. Some books just have to be written. And some books 
                                His work appears widely, including       just have to be read.’ —TRENT DALTON
                                in The Best Australian Essays, Meanjin, 
                                The Guardian and The Monthly. An         ‘Car Crash is a clear-eyed, bruising and tender account of 
                                inaugural Griffith Review Queensland     how the moments that thrust you into adulthood can take 
                                Writing Fellow, he won the 2017          place in seconds. Lech Blaine’s journalism has long made 
                                Queensland Premier’s Young               me suspect he’s one of the best writers of his generation. 
                                Publishers and Writers Award and         Car Crash confirms it, without a doubt.’ —BEN LAW
                                the 2019 Brisbane Lord Mayor’s 
                                Emerging Artist Fellowship. 
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          Black Inc. Book Club Notes
          Discussion Points
          1.  The book opens on the car crash itself. How did               7.  On his ambition to become prime minister, Blaine 
          reading the vivid description of the accident make you            writes, ‘I just needed to be me: a know-it-all who loved  
          feel? Where were you expecting the narrative to go after          the sound of my own voice, the sight of a huge crowd and 
          chapter one?                                                      the romance of an underdog.’ Larrikinism and mateship 
                                                                            are recurrent themes throughout the book. Blaine’s story  
          2.  As described in the book, the media’s coverage of the         is uniquely Australian in many ways. Discuss.
          accident and the speculations and assumptions about  
          the circumstances that led to it had a big impact on those        8.  Guilt and acceptance are overarching themes of the 
          involved and the wider community. Discuss the idea of             book. The book doesn’t have a solid conclusion because 
          ‘trial by media’.                                                 grief is never complete. How does Blaine learn to manage 
                                                                            his grief?
          3.  As a young man growing up in regional Australia, 
          Blaine’s idea of masculinity is strongly linked to sports         9.  We follow Blaine from adolescence to adulthood in  
          and drinking. Why do you think this is the case? How              the book. As he matures, how too do his relationships? 
          does this affect young people – boys/men particularly?            Discuss generally how parent/child relationships grow  
                                                                            and change as we become adults.
          4.  The book is in many ways a reflection on life and  
          death, seen through the prism of depression. How did 
          Blaine’s friends and family respond to his mental illness? 
          Are there still stigmas associated with depression? 
          5.  ‘Maybe the grief I sought was no longer possible to feel. 
          Maybe social media had made loss obsolete.’ What does 
          Blaine mean by this? How has social media changed the 
          way that we experience grief and memoriam? Are there 
          positives and negatives?
          6.  The book discusses class in Australia from a white, 
          upper middle class, male perspective. How might the  
          trial by media (and indeed the justice system) been 
          different if the young men involved in the accident  
          weren’t white and privileged? How does Blaine address  
          this in the book?
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